Minister of Justice seeks further evidence to prosecute Saraki, Ekweremadu

Senate President Bukola Saraki, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu

Three months after it charged Senate President Bukola Saraki, his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, and two others with forging the Senate Standing Rules, the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice has declared the investigation into the alleged offence inconclusive, THISDAY has learnt.

The AGF, Abubakar Malami, is now desperately seeking fresh investigations that will enable him convict the accused persons, even though he has not withdrawn the pending charges against them.

To get the court to accept the charges, the AGF had told the court that investigations into the alleged forgery had been concluded.

In June, when the case was first filed in court and before the arraignment of Saraki and other co-accused persons, the federal government deposed to an affidavit, which was attached to the case file at the time, attesting that investigations into the matter had been concluded.

In the charge sheet dated June 10, 2016 and signed by D.E Kaswe Esq., Principal State Counsel on behalf of the AGF, and which was backed by an Affidavit of Completion of Investigation deposed to at the Federal High Court Registry, Abuja, on the same date by Okara Neji Jonah, a litigation officer in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja, attested that the police had concluded its investigations.

Okara swore that “the FCIID (Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department) has concluded investigation of the case and has forwarded the file to the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation for Prosecution”.

However, three days to the adjourned date on the matter, it gathered from highly reliable sources and sighted various documents from both the office of the AGF and that of the Inspector General of Police (IG) that the prosecution was making frantic efforts to reopen what it termed “inconclusive investigations”.

A letter from the office of the AGF to the IG and signed by the Special Assistant to the President on (Research and Special Projects)/Secretary, National Prosecution Coordination Committee, Sylvester Omoregie Imhanobe, a copy of which was sighted by a correspondent, clearly stated that the AGF was seeking fresh investigations into the case.

The AGF noted that after reviewing the case, he had since realised that the investigations were “inconclusive”, and therefore was seeking to reopen it.